Degree Heating Week data from 1985-01-01 to 2017-12-31 assesses heat stress exposure for wider Caribbean coral reefs. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information compiled this three-decade dataset using daily Sea Surface Temperature 'CoralTemp' data. The analysis defines eight Heat Stress Regions and provides metrics like maximum DHW value and frequency of high-stress events.
Use Cases
- Classify coral reef areas into one of eight Heat Stress Regions using the K-means cluster analysis results.
- Model bleaching risk by analyzing the frequency of annual maximum DHW values exceeding 4 °C-weeks per pixel.
- Assess mortality risk by examining the frequency of annual maximum DHW values exceeding 8 °C-weeks per pixel.
- Identify the year of peak heat stress for a given location using the 'year in which the maximum of DHW occurred' metric.
- Analyze long-term trends in thermal stress by evaluating the trend of annual maximum DHW values per pixel.
Strengths
- 33-year temporal coverage from 1985 to 2017 provides a long-term baseline.
- Analysis performed at both ecoregional and local (5 km pixel) scales.
- Dataset includes multiple derived metrics like maximum value, frequency, trend, and event year.
Limitations
- Data ends in 2017, lacking recent years for current climate impact assessment.
- Specific row count, column details, and sample size are unknown.
- Geographic scope is limited to the wider Caribbean region.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI Accession 0205786).
- Collection Method
- Degree Heating Weeks calculated from daily Sea Surface Temperature 'CoralTemp' data and maximum monthly mean data from the NOAA Coral Reef Watch program.
- Time Range
- 1985-01-01 to 2017-12-31
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Wider Caribbean coral reefs.